. Palestine : the physical geography and natural history of the Holy Land. ill he for thatreason doubt that they ever existed there. Lions are not now found in Greece or in AsiaMinor, where they formerly abounded. In former ages Western Asia was well drained of itslions to supply the exorbitant demands of the Roman amphitheatre; and here, as elsewhere, theprogress of population and civilization has driven them within narrower limits ; and since guns,instead of spears and arrows, have been brought into the field against them, their destructionhas been very rapid. The lion is not now found west
. Palestine : the physical geography and natural history of the Holy Land. ill he for thatreason doubt that they ever existed there. Lions are not now found in Greece or in AsiaMinor, where they formerly abounded. In former ages Western Asia was well drained of itslions to supply the exorbitant demands of the Roman amphitheatre; and here, as elsewhere, theprogress of population and civilization has driven them within narrower limits ; and since guns,instead of spears and arrows, have been brought into the field against them, their destructionhas been very rapid. The lion is not now found west of the Euphrates; and although it is notunknown on the banks of the Tigris, in the deserts of Arabia, in Persia, and the country beyond,eastward, it is not in any part of Asia of frequent occurrence, and in size and aspect is muchinferior to the lion of Africa, which appears to be the true country of this noble creature, andthat in which his highest condi ion is attained. Various travellers in Palestine have noticed tigers, leopards, panthers, ounces—but by all &M. [Syrian Leopard.—Ftlis ntmr.] V,^: a Gen. xlix 9; Num. xxiii. 24 ; xxiv. 9 ; Deut. xxxiii. 20 ; Job iv. 11 ; xxxviii. 33 ; Isa. v. 29 ; xxx. 6, &c. b Job iv. 11; Prov. xxx. 30 ; Isa. xxx. 6. c Diod. i. 48; and the sculptures of Dayr, Medinat Abou, Kalabshi, & ;. See Wilkinson, iii 17. Chap. VIII.] ZOOLOGY. ccclxix these names one and the same animal is intended, and that is a Leopard. This we learn fromthe more definite information supplied by the figure which Ehrenberg has given. It is one ofthe most beautiful of its tribe. It is more in the southern maritime mountains of Syria—thatis in and about Lebanon and in Palestine, than in Northern Syria. Stories are current of itsdepredations in the mountains, and of its attacking travellers in the night on the sea-shore,about the roots of Lebanon. It is among the animals of Mount Tabor,a and has been noticednear the lake of The leopard, under the name of D
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